#00178
The Roving Newfoundlanders (Greenleaf/Mansfield) MIDI, video

sheet music


     #2024: YouTube video by TheMuddyshag ©2011
                  ~ Used with permission ~

midi file alt : midi file

As I was setting in my homestead one day while all alone,
I was thinking of my countrymen and where they had to roam;
From England to America, Australia and Japan,
Where'er you go you'll surely find a man from Newfoundland.

They're the pride of every country, good fortune on them smile!
They climbed the heights of Alma, they crossed the river Nile;
They sailed unto Vancouver, you'll find it on the roll,
And on the expedition went nearest to the Pole.

It's way out in South Africa where hogs they stand so high,
They used their guns and bayonets the Boers for to destroy;
Where cannons roar like thunder destruction's on the plain,
You sons of Terra Nova, you fought for England's fame.

'Twas Nelson at Trafalgar the victory did gain,
The Americans fought the Spaniards for blowing up the Maine;
She sunk with all her gallant crew, that gay and gallant band,
They're sleeping in their watery graves like sons of Newfoundland.

When my mind been bent on roaming, 'tis something sad to tell,
Out in the mines of Cuba, one of my comrades fell;
His age had scarce been twenty-one, just entered in full bloom,
On the eighteenth day of June was summoned to his tomb.

They sailed the Mediterranean, I've heard the clergy tell,
They went out into Egypt, from that to Jacob's Well;
They've fished the Northern and Grand Banks from every hole and knap,
They are the tyrants of the sea, they fished the Flemish Cap.

And now my song is ended, I think I have done well,
My birthplace and my station I'm trying for to tell;
I've spoke of every nation, I've freely won my race,
I am a Newfoundlander belongs to Harbour Grace.

####.... Author unknown. Original Newfoundland song ....####
Sung in 1929 by Daniel Endacott of Sally's Cove, NL, and published as #183 on pp.369-370 in Ballads And Sea Songs Of Newfoundland, by Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1933; Folklore Associates, Hatboro, Pennsylvania, 1968).

Also published by Gerald S. Doyle in Old-Time Songs And Poetry Of Newfoundland: Songs Of The People From The Days Of Our Forefathers (Second edition, p.55, 1940; Third edition, p.71, 1955) with a notation that the song came from Ballads And Sea Songs Of Newfoundland.

The YouTube video above features a variant arranged and recorded as The Roving Newfoundlander by Omar Blondahl (The Roving Newfoundlander, trk#6, 1959 LP, Banff-Rodeo, Halifax, Nova Scotia, distributed by London Records of Canada); and (16 Songs Of Newfoundland, trk#16, 1959 LP, Banff-Rodeo, Halifax, Nova Scotia, distributed by London Records of Canada); and (Canadian Country Classics: Songs From The Rock, trk#18, 1997 CD, Rodeo Records, Peterborough, Ontario).


See more songs by Omar Blondahl.

From the Dictionary Of Newfoundland English:
Knap - shoal or 'bank' on the fishing grounds (def.2).






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